The present invention relates to paint rollers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device attachable to a paint roller frame that assists in preventing unwanted contact of a paint roller cover with a surface adjacent to a surface being painted.
Paint rollers, including paint roller frames and roller covers, are known in the art. Briefly, a typical paint roller includes a handle graspable by the user by which to paint surfaces. A shank extending from the handle will generally have a “C”-shaped frame with a lower horizontal support, a vertical support and an upper horizontal support. A cage rotatably attached to the upper horizontal support provides a means upon which a roller cover is disposed. In grasping the handle, the user is able to sop up paint from a tray, and then apply the paint to a generally flat surface in a rolling fashion.
Paint rollers are typically used in situations where this is a relatively large, generally flat surface to be painted, and the paint can be applied by the paint rollers in an effective and efficient manner. Such instances include, but are not limited to, the painting of flat interior walls or ceilings. However, as the roller itself is round, the actual surface upon which the paint is being applied is not necessarily directly beneath the outer radius of the roller. As such, a gap between adjacent adjoining surfaces oftentimes results when using paint rollers. To minimize this gap, painters will try to paint as close to the abutting adjacent surface as possible which, if not extremely careful, could result in the roller being positioned too far such that the roller cover comes into contact with the adjacent surface and the unintentional application of paint thereon. This is often problematic in situations where it is difficult to judge the remaining distance between the paint roller cover and the adjacent surface.
There exist examples in the art that have attempted to overcome this drawback of using paint rollers, including for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,332,988 and 8,615,839. However, shortcomings exist in such examples as the guides discussed therein need to be manually removed each time paint from the paint tray is applied to the paint roller cover.
There therefore exists in the art the need to provide a paint roller stopper device that is effective and convenient to use in order to prevent the misapplication of paint on surfaces adjacent to the surface being painted. The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of the prior to accomplish this.